Healthcare organizations, especially complex, distributed ones like hospitals and allied health chains, rely on efficient printing to support a range of essential operations, including patient record management, prescription printing and admin documentation. And when that printing breaks down, the healthcare organization tends to break down. That’s why reliable hospital printing solutions are critical to maintaining smooth-running healthcare operations.
When it comes to print bottlenecks in healthcare printing, they generally occur due to inefficient workflows, outdated infrastructure, and high print demand in critical departments, like emergency rooms and intensive care units (precisely the areas where admin bottlenecks can have the most serious consequences).
But don’t worry. There is a solution: healthcare print management.
The role of print management in healthcare
Print management’s job is basically to untangle the knotted ball of fishing line that is healthcare printing. Centralized print management helps streamline hospital printing by reducing complexity, automating print queues, and prioritizing print jobs in essential departments. For example, you can make sure that urgent patient reports from Electronic Medical Records (EMR) and Electronic Health Records (EHR) systems are printed as soon as possible, and routed to the most efficient MFD.
Security and compliance in healthcare printing
Unsecured printing in hospitals is a higher stakes challenge than most other organizations. Mainly because it can lead to expensive HIPAA violations, audits, and patient data breaches. Healthcare organizations are legally obligated to implement secure printing solutions, such as secure print release and end-to-end encryption, to make printing as safe as possible. Of course, the ideal setups always manage to balance robust print security with ease-of-use. What you don’t want is a healthcare print solution that somehow incentivizes user workarounds or shortcuts. In other words, Security should enhance efficiency, not create additional bottlenecks.
Managed Print Services (MPS) for healthcare
We’ve covered Managed Print Services (MPS) before , but here’s the short version: MPS is a comprehensive, end-to-end solution, provided by an external company, to manage all aspects of a healthcare organization’s printing. Device management. Security. Reporting. Maintenance. The works.
Managed Print Services (MPS) optimize healthcare print environments by reducing costs, improving security, and automating printer fleet management. By analyzing print usage patterns across departments, MPS providers can also eliminate redundant devices, implement standardized printing policies, and enhance printer security. All of which saves money. For example, PaperCut helped SouthEast Health save $70,000 on printing costs in a single year.
Eliminating print waste and reducing operational costs
Speaking of cost, did you know the average 1,500-bed hospital spends about $3.8 million per year on printing? More efficient healthcare printing isn’t just a nice-to-have – it represents serious potential savings.
Unfortunately, hospitals also generate significant print waste, mostly due to unnecessary print jobs and inefficient habits. These are two areas where print management solutions shine. By making it simple to track staff behavior and implement print rules, like duplex printing, and restricted color printing for non-clinical documents, you can significantly reduce print waste . Duplex alone cuts your paper use in half (think about it).
Optimizing printer fleets for high-traffic healthcare environments
A well-optimized printer fleet is crucial for managing high print demand in healthcare settings. Generally, this is all about ensuring compatibility between printers and EMR/EHR systems, which prevents formatting issues and delays. Hospitals need to deploy high-speed, high-capacity printers in departments with frequent printing needs, such as radiology and laboratories. Meanwhile, multifunction devices can be used in administrative areas to consolidate printing, scanning, and fax functions. It’s all about picking the right machine for the right job.
The other reason to consider the makeup of your printer fleet is that mixed printer fleets aren’t only more expensive to maintain – they’re a leading cause of bottlenecks. If you need more info about building a unified printer fleet, check out this article .
Mobile and remote printing for healthcare staff
With the rise of hybrid work and telehealth, healthcare staff need secure mobile and remote printing solutions. These are excellent areas to improve, because once you get your mobile printing system well-configured, with automated print queues and intelligent job routing , print bottlenecks will be a thing of the past.
Implementing cloud-based print management allows doctors and nurses to send print jobs from any location, while at the same time ensuring compliance with security protocols. It’s the best of both worlds. For example, a telehealth provider could print patient summaries at a central hospital for in-person pickup, speeding up care coordination.
Preventing printer downtime
Printer downtime is a concern for any organization, but it’s especially critical in healthcare. Printer downtime in hospitals can disrupt patient care, delaying the printing of medication orders, lab results, and discharge summaries. This is why we emphasize the importance of proactive maintenance and monitoring your print environment .
Proactive maintenance schedules, automated supply replenishment, and real-time printer monitoring all help prevent unnecessary downtime.
Enhancing print tracking and analytics in healthcare
Once you’ve experienced healthcare printing with advanced analytics , you won’t ever want to go back. Real-time print monitoring and data analytics give your IT teams insights into print usage, helping identify inefficiencies and optimize your print environment. Dashboards displaying print volume by department can highlight overuse, enabling hospitals to adjust policies accordingly.
For instance, with print analytics, you might find that 30% of printed documents in a particular department were never collected. This might lead to a policy shift toward digital workflows, better staff training, or a simple tech solution, like secure print release . Whichever you choose, you just reduced print waste by 30%.
Want to simplify your healthcare printing?
PaperCut can help – learn more about our healthcare print solutions today!
